Light Poured In and Shining (365 Days of Daring Faith — DAY 356)

John 1:10-11 (NLT)He came into the very world he created, but the world didn’t recognize him. He came to his own people, and even they rejected him.

If this were a world of pure goodness, we probably would need the expectation of going to heaven. If this were a world of light, it would be fairly easy to recognize the truth of Jesus amidst the fiction. But this is a world that is neither good or filled with light. And we have contributed to that condition. This is a world wrought with evil and darkness into which Jesus came to be the true light.

Scripture reminds us that when Jesus came into the world that God the Father created, the world did not even recognize Him. They thought He was just another ordinary baby, another normal man. When He went into the cities He had grown up in even the people there did not want to claim Him as their own. Maybe it isn’t because they didn’t want to, but more because they were too blind to see Jesus for who He really was.

In order to see the true light of Christ, we have to understand the nature of darkness and be willing to open our eyes in the dark so that the light can pierce our hearts. In order to do that, you need help. You need the help that can only come from Jesus Christ to make you a new person, not a perfect person, but a better with a life of light. You need Jesus to make the difference in your life.

Jesus offers eternal life to all of his creation. But too many of us prefer darkness rather than light, death rather than life. In our pride, we don’t want to admit that we need Someone to save us and rescue us from our sinking state. As a result, the cross to us appears more grim than glorious, more battered than beautiful. For all our searching, what we really want is a light that will shine bright on the right path.

Only Christ can be that light for us. We only need to open our hearts to the Spirit of God because it is the only way through which we will be able to recognize the light, receive the truth, and walk in the way. When we open our hearts to him, he pours the light into our lives and orders that every ray of it reflect his love, grace, and eternal life.